The Holtzapffel Workbench – Day 7

(Part 7 of a series)

I got out to the shop late this morning and took the leg assemblies to the jointer to clean and square. Nothing real important to talk about here, minus the fact that I’m thinking the mortises won’t match up on the top just exactly how I’m hoping they will. Not a problem, but I’ll have to explain later when I have the pictures to do so. Just an aligning of boards that will be difficult.

Leg assemblies squared away (see what I did there?), I was inspired to glue up the long stretchers for the base. I marked and cut the short sections, the ones that aren’t a natural tenon, but I didn’t have to cut the tenon boards, them being just a hair over 45″ long. I’ll rasp or shave them down the approximately 1/16″ they are over, or I’ll just cut the mortises just a little deeper. Not a big deal. I concentrated on getting a solid 2″ shoulder on the front board. It took three of my Jets and both of my Irwins to make me feel good about the glue joint.

Having accomplished this, I felt doubly inspired to go ahead and take care of the shorter side stretchers. Same process, except I used my cheapo HF aluminum adjustable clamps and a couple of F-clamps. No problems there.

I had to go disconnect the cord I left to charge my batteries later when a thunderstorm was threatening, and it was just the right time to scrape off the excess glue before it dried too much. Going to be much easier than the legs getting the rest of the glue off.

A couple of pics for you to finish this off for today. Glue won’t be dry enough for my liking to joint later, so it will be at least tomorrow before that happens. While I’d like to get started on the mortises this weekend, I think that Monday will be much more likely. You’ll see a gap in the day total (as I’m keeping a real-time track of how long this takes) but that’s why I put the part numbers at the beginning of each post so no one is confused. I’ll try to find some content otherwise to keep me busy.

So ends the first week of this project. It’s been a good week, with no major surprises or disappointments. I’m pleased with my progress. In truth, I think I’ve gotten more done than I anticipated I would. I have a small shop, and it’s been a challenge at times to move things around for workflow. I think the plan for next week is to get the base dry-fit and prepared to be assembled, but to hold off on assembly until I get the top boards processed and glued up in at least two sections. I’ll need my current table for that, and there’s not room for both tables in my shop. When I’m prepared for final glue up of the top, I’ll assemble the base for the final time and have it ready to mark the mortises and notch in the vise. Will that be ready at the end of the second week? Probably not. I’m aiming for a three week total project time on this. Having it completed by my birthday would be a nice present to myself.